This invention concerns a relatively thin flexible anchor sheet for use under carpets or other decorative coverings. In practice, when installed, the anchor sheet acts to tie the decorative covering together as a functional unit and to add mass and stability to such unit, particularly a unit having a flexible decorative covering such as a carpet. An anchor sheet may be substantially covered over one side with hooks for anchoring a decorative covering to it by engagement of complementary loops on the lower side of the covering. The anchor sheet itself may be attached to the underlying substrate, such as a floor or wall, or it may be loose laid on a floor where the sheet and covering together have sufficient mass or are so placed as to prevent movement. It is possible to supply the anchor sheet as a small or large module with pre-attached decorative covering as will be explained later.
It is common to attach a decorative flexible covering, such as carpets, to rigid substrates such as floors, made of wood or concrete. It is often desirable, or even required, to fasten carpet to the flooring which it covers and a variety of attachment methods have been developed over the years.
Carpet can be glued directly to the flooring. This is often the approach taken in an institutional setting in which the underlying flooring is concrete and liquid glue is applied across the entire concrete area to be covered. This approach has the advantage that, so long as the adhesive bond provided between the carpet and flooring remains intact, the carpet cannot buckle. Of course, adjustment or replacement of such carpet can be difficult in the sense that previously applied glue might be required to be stripped from the flooring and new glue applied. In addition, such glues often contain volatile organic components that are banned in some places or are required to be ventilated, in other places.
Another approach taken to installing wall-to-wall carpet involves the use of xe2x80x9ctackless stripsxe2x80x9d, which are wooden strips having angled tacks driven upwardly therethrough. The strips are secured around the perimeter of the area to be covered, often by nailing them into wooden flooring, and the carpet is stretched over the tacks. This approach has the advantage that the carpet can be restretched to remove a buckle that develops, and the carpet and underpad, not being permanently adhered to the flooring can be removed without being destroyed. However, stretching is a labour intensive art which makes installing wall-to-wall carpet by this method relatively expensive. This approach also avoids the use of volatile organics, but some difficulties can arise in installing tackless strips to concrete.
More recent approaches involving the use of Velcro-type fasteners have been described in the patent literature: Germany 7,029,524 (Aug. 8, 1970, Velcro France), U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,019 (Apr. 6, 1971, Girard); UK 1,546,901 (May 31, 1979, Allied Chemical Corporation); U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658 (Apr. 18, 1989, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,692 (Mar. 9, 1993, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,462 (Jan. 17, 1995, Pacione); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,755 (Jan. 2, 1996, Pacione). The specifications of all these patent documents are incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. ""658 from the same inventor describes a wall-to-wall installation in which hooked strips are secured by pressure sensitive adhesive around a room perimeter and at the carpet seams. A carpet having loops across its backside is cut to fit the room and the loops engage the hooked tape. U.S. ""692 describes a method for seaming a carpet such as the one described in U.S. ""658. Both of these patent specifications also disclose advantages obtained through the use of a cover for the hooked tape, a primary advantage being that such a cover prevents premature engagement of the hooks and loops to permit proper placement and adjustment of the carpet without the need for disengaging prematurely engaged hooks and loops during installation. This prior approach provides the advantages of installing strips at the perimeter and seams of a carpeted area, particularly that the carpeting can be lifted without being destroyed and the avoidance of the use of compounds containing volatile adhesives.
The xe2x80x9choly grailxe2x80x9d of carpet and other decorative covering, would be a system which when laid had such mass and stability as to require little or no attachment to the underlying substrate and which can be installed over existing substrates without the necessity of the removal of existing covering. However for transportation in trucks and to physically fit into a site, such as a room, such a system has to either provide for sufficient flexibility so that it can be rolled or, if rigid, a way of assembling modules so as to form a contiguous mass in situ with sufficient mass and stability to remain in place with minimal detachable attachment or perhaps no attachment, particularly when dealing with different existing floors or flooring surfaces to be covered.
As previously mentioned, there are advantages to allow the carpet or other decorative covering to be attached to an underlying undersurface at only a few discrete attachment points or even in some cases not attached at all so as to be easily removable. Attachment to the underlying substrate at discrete attachment points provides for minimal damage to the underlying substrate, ease of removal from the substrate and ease of installation. However, a product, method and system is needed to convert these individual attachment points to structurally integrated attachment across the entire undersurface of a carpet or other decorative covering to enable overlaying carpet or other decorative covering to be engineered to maintain atmospheric stability, flatness and horizontal plane stability when stressed with forces produced by human traffic, rolling vehicles, moving furniture or moisture or temperature changes.
In addition, the system provides that the pieces of carpet or other decorative covering can be integrated together by use of the underlying detachable anchor sheet. Then individual modules can be made consisting of a decorative covering and an anchor sheet attached together in advance of installation at a remote site. Such modules can be easily removed and re-attached as required for repair or replacement or for design reasons. In addition such individual modules can be locked together by overlapping the anchor sheet or decorative covering of adjacent modules so as to give the complete structure sufficient mass and stability to minimize or remove the need for attachment to the substrate.
The present invention in one aspect features an anchor sheet, preferably of plastic, for detachable attachment of a decorative covering such as carpet, ceramic, tile, hardwood, marble or a wall covering to an underlying rigid supporting substrate, such as the surface of flooring or a wall.
By providing an anchor sheet preferably in the form of a relatively thin flexible sheet, integrity can be given to covering materials, such as flexible carpets which can be pre-assembled or assembled on site onto the surface of the sheet by the use of a complementary hook on the upper surface of the flexible sheet matching a complementary loop on the undersurface of the carpet or carpet pieces. The sheet can then be installed onto an underlying substrate such as concrete or wood at only a discrete number of points. The anchor sheet enables the installation of decorative covering even onto stone or tile, without significant destruction of the stone or tile floor. It also enables decorative patterns to be pre-assembled at a factory or other location or to be assembled on site by cutting and fitting different colours or pieces of decorative covering together on the anchor sheet to form decorative patterns. Such a system is suitable for either area rugs or wall-to-wall covering and in certain types of wall-to-wall and area rugs, or even tile, it may not be necessary to attach the anchor sheet to the underlying substrate at all. If the carpet is cut to fit the walls or boundaries of a room the anchor sheet may give sufficient integrity to the carpet to allow it to simply sit in the location under constraint of the perimeter walls or other boundaries or if enough furniture, for example, was placed on top. It should be emphasized that the anchor sheet, however, is not structural support in the conventional sense as disclosed for example, in the anchor board of Pacione 5,060,443 since it does not support the floor or wall on which it is placed. It is a vehicle for stabilizing the carpet or other decorative covering which is overlaid and for tying individual pieces of carpet or decorative covering together with each other but not necessarily to the floor. Normally in fact the anchor sheet maintains a certain level of flexibility to enable the anchor sheet to xe2x80x9cridexe2x80x9d over imperfections in the floor.
Normally the anchor sheet is relatively thin in relation to the overlying decorative covering, but in some cases, for instance, where there is a thin layer of marble veneer, then the anchor sheet could be thicker and more rigid than the overlying material and could be made of materials other than plastic such as metal (aluminum or steel) or wood.
Thus, the invention consists of, in one aspect, a detachable anchor sheet for detachable attachment of a decorative covering, such as a carpet, to a rigid supporting substrate, such as a floor, in which the decorative covering has a finished upper surface and an opposite surface substantially covered in loops. The anchor sheet can comprise a relatively thin flexible sheet, preferably of plastic such as a polycarbonate, polyester, polyethylene, or polypropylene, substantially covered with hooks on its upper surface facing the loop surface of the decorative covering and placed intermediate between the decorative covering and the supporting substrate. This flexible anchor sheet or sheets can be, but normally is not, exactly the same size as the combined pieces of overlying sheet goods. Normally overlapping areas of anchor sheet or decorative covering are used to enable tying of the anchor sheets used in a location together. The anchor sheet may be larger than the area under the sheet goods or it can be smaller in cases where it is desired to trim the overlaying carpet to a wall or other boundary. The anchor sheet and decorative covering must in combination have sufficient rigidity to support the decorative covering from shear horizontal force applied to the sheet goods on the floor or other substrate when the combination is laid onto the rigid supporting substrate. In some cases, the anchor sheet will be attached to the substrate at a limited number of discrete points or in some cases along with the covering it may have sufficient rigidity and mass to free float within the boundaries of a room or even on its own.
Thus, in another aspect of this invention it is possible to install decorative flexible anchor sheets to abut each other and to use either the hook covering of the anchor sheet or the overlying decorative covering such as a carpet to tie the abutting anchor sheets together with the use of complementary hook and loop technology. In almost all cases the overlying covering will overlap the joins of the anchor sheets and the anchor sheets will overlap the joins of the covering to tie the anchor sheets and covering together.
It is preferable, but not required in all cases, for the decorative covering to be detachable from the anchor sheet. In the case of smaller modules the decorative covering would normally be pre-installed, and possibly even permanently installed, on the non-decorative anchor sheet leaving an area of anchor sheet or decorative covering exposed for detachable attachment by overlapping with adjoining modules. It is required that this overlapping area provide for detachable attachment and also for a means to prevent attachment during installation to enable the modules to be adjusted for correct alignment during installation. The means for detachable attachment is preferably a hook and loop attachment system, but it could also be an adhesive which provided for multiple opening and closing while maintaining tackiness. In the case where hook and loop is used to join the modules, the covering could be a hand smooth plastic which does not bind to the hook and loop, or one could use a textile or paper hook covering not unlike the hook covering in original patent Pacione ""658. For parquet, tile, hardwood, ceramics or other rigid decorative covering, a flexible tape covering could be used in the overlapping area, which is provided with a pull string which can be pulled from under the pre-assembled covering. This whole process could be duplicated using entirely adhesive or part adhesive and part hook and loop.
Thus, the individual modules of anchor sheet and the individual modules of covering are tied together in a supporting mass which can xe2x80x9cfree floatxe2x80x9d on the floor or be connected at only very few discrete points.
In another aspect the invention consists of an anchor sheet or sheets and pieces of covering in an overlapping staggered relationship to form a contiguous floor covering having sufficient rigidity, atmospheric stability, horizontal plane stability (shear force stability) and flexibility so that in general use such floor covering may not require attachment to the underlying floor. Attachment may be required for a small area rug over a slick marble floor or at a ramp or stairs or where the end use involves heavy traffic.
In another aspect of this invention, decorative modules comprising an anchor sheet and decorative covering can be pre-assembled off site by detachably attaching some of the hooks on the upper surface of the anchor sheet to some of the loops on the underside of the decorative covering so that the decorative covering on the anchor sheet overlaps the anchor sheet by a predetermined amount. These pre-assembled decorative modules can then be shipped to the site and individually placed on the underlying substrate in an abutting fashion to permit interlocking between the loops on the underside of the decorative covering of one unit and the hooks on the upper surface of the anchor sheet of an adjacent decorative module. Each decorative module added to the growing modular surface covering can be guided into its proper position by placing thin, rigid pieces of plastic over the exposed hooks of the anchor sheet of an established decorative module. After properly aligning the decorative module to be added to the established module, the thin, rigid plastic pieces are slid out and away from the two modules, parallel to the horizontal plane, thereby allowing the abutting module to become engaged through a hook and loop system. The thin, rigid pieces of plastic can also be used to detach individual modules of the modular surface covering. The thin, rigid plastic is inserted between the mechanically bonded portions of the hook and loop fastener of abutting modules, parallel to the horizontal plane, thereby breaking the mechanical bond and maintaining the hooks and loops out of contact with one another to enable the units to be dislodged and removed from the modular surface covering.
In another aspect, the invention consists of a covering module for transportation to a surface to be covered and for attachment to additional modules to form a finished decorative surface comprising at least one decorative covering having an upper decorative surface and an opposite lower surface, a non-decorative anchor sheet having an upper surface, the decorative covering attached across a substantial portion of its lower surface to the non-decorative anchor sheet and the anchor sheet dimensioned so that, after attachment of the decorative covering to the anchor sheet, there is provided an overlap area of upper surface of anchor sheet exposed along at least one edge of the module which overlap area is provided with means for detachable attachment of such module to an adjoining module by attachment to an overlapping area of the lower surface of a decorative covering attached to an adjoining module.
Covering modules of an unlimited variety of shapes and sizes can be constructed and decorative patterns may be assembled on site by combining different colours or patterns of the same type of decorative covering, such as alternating between units of red and blue carpet or by combining different types of decorative covering such as carpet and hardwood in a hotel, restaurant or ballroom setting or carpet, hardwood, ceramic or stone in a home setting. In general use, such contiguous covering could have sufficient rigidity and mass so as not to require attachment to the underlying surface. In some cases, attachment of the anchor sheet at discrete points may be required as for example, when the surface to be covered is a wall.